PREMIERE: September 5, 1980 in Rotterdam by the Netherlands Opera and the Utrechts Symfonie Orkest, Conducted by Christopher Keene

NOTES: The second in Glass’ trilogy about men who changed the world, Satyagraha’s sub-text is politics. The opera is semi-narrative in form and deals with Mahatma Gandhi’s early years in South Africa and his development of non-violent protest into a political tool. (“Satyagraha” is a Sanskrit word meaning “truth force”).

The first two acts each contain three scenes; the last is one continuous scene. Each act is dominated by a single historic figure (non-singing role) overlooking the action from above: the Indian poet Ravindranath Tagore in Act I the Russian author Leo Tolstoy in Act II, the American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr in Act III.